In tire production, major challenges need to be controlled by tire manufacturing companies, including the technical development of materials, mixture of compounds and the production process, according to the company. A critical part of the production process is the maintenance and cleaning of molds. Clean molds are said to offer flexibility and have direct impact on the production capacity and cost. Safety, noise and secondary waste are also key reasons why tire manufacturers need to review and control the mold cleaning process. The current trend in tire mold cleaning is said to be to clean in place, automatically and non-abrasively.
The tire manufacturer must control the maintenance process. Solutions for tire manufacturing companies are offered to control this critical cleaning process with MicroParticles, said to be the finest dry ice particles that offer the fastest and most efficient clean. The company's patented MicroParticle technology combined with its SureFlow system is said to deliver on the needs of the tire mold cleaning industry by addressing the material and complexity of the mold, the valves and vents, the integration of the system in the existing environment, the press downtime, safety, noise and the environmentally responsible cleaning project.
Safety is also said to be one key reason tire manufacturers need to review the actual process and why the company's system is said to be preferred over alternatives. A faster clean with less noise is only one of the arguments in favor of dry ice cleaning. Tire manufacturing companies need to ensure that the safest process with minimum downtime is achieved in their facility, according to the company.

One of North America's leading custom rubber mixers offers the capacity to supply over 250 million pounds annually. The firm continually invests in its manufacturing. Its main facility in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, is supplemented by a state-of-the-art mixing facility in Scotland Neck, NC.
With on-site quality testing laboratories and a staff of chemists, the company manufactures custom rubber compounds that are said to consistently raise the performance bar under the most demanding conditions. The firm's traditional markets include military; chemical biological and nuclear protective products; car tires; conveyor belt products for mining applications; forklift tires; automotive parts; and off-road tire retreading. The company is said to be an increasingly smart choice for makers of rubber polymer products for the oil and gas industry, wire and cable, and infrastructure.
As one of the world's top developers of rubber compounds, the company can offer customers a valuable opinion on new product possibilities, plus the required compound consistency. The firm offers compounding of EPDM rubber, styrene butadiene SBR rubber, compression molding rubber, CPE rubber, CBRN rubber, synthetic rubber, nitrile buna-N rubber, elastomeric rubber, rubber extrusion, NSF rubber, stator tube rubber and bridge pad compounds.
If a company is working with a compound that is causing difficulties, the firm has an inventory of waterworks, conduit seal and elastomeric bridge bearing recipes that could prove to be a superior alternative to existing formulations. Raw material supply is said to be assured.

Custom rubber mixing and formulating services are available to create the exact rubber compound that a job requires, according to the company. The firm's rubber mixing and formulating engineers specialize in working with organic rubbers and color additives, and mixing is available. The company's 80 liter mixers are available for minimum batch sizes of 70 pounds, and the company also offers additional services like two-pass mixing to achieve required results. A compound is supplied in continuous strip or slabs. The rubber mixing and formulating services are capable of producing material with hardness from 30 durometer to 90 durometer. Additional available characteristics include oxidation resistance, water absorption resistance, compression set and abrasion resistance. The firm also offers secondary services, including vulcanized t-joint fabrication and corner molding. Testing services available from the company include repeatability testing and data sheets. (D.S. Brown)

An ISO 9001:2008 certified company serves customers with black and colored rubber compounds from two plants in LaGrange, GA. This growth-oriented company has made recent investments of $8 million to increase capacity and modernize equipment. The firm's plants are said to be safe and efficient, offering a combined annual capacity of 100 million pounds. For those needing custom compounding services, the company offers three mixing lines equipped to handle high volume mixes as well as smaller volume mixes. Additionally, their experienced staff is committed to providing the highest quality and service levels in the business, according to the company. The firm offers an automated chemical weighing system, a 268 liter color mixing line, a 110 liter tilt color mixing line and a 268 liter black mixing line.

Rapid allergen testing of natural rubber latex products is offered by the company. The Latex-T kit is said to be fast and easy to use. The kit detects the presence of two of the major allergens in latex products. The Latex-T test kit is designed for on-site detection of latex allergens. The kit is portable and does not require any laboratory equipment. This company can offer specialized services in plant genomics, plant molecular biology/genetics, plant proteomics and bioinformatics. The firm can carry out international standard testing for protein content determination in natural rubber products, as well as individual allergenic protein content in natural rubber products.

A custom fabricator of industrial rubber products and plastic parts provides help for material buyers and product designers who need help during compound selection. Butyl rubber is said to have valuable properties for seals and gaskets. Butyl rubber is a synthetic rubber that is impermeable to gases and moisture, and that provides resistance to heat, ozone and chemicals. Halogenating isobutylene isoprene rubber with either chlorine or bromine is said to be common for automotive, industrial and other applications. Examining these applications can help material buyers and product designers to determine if butyl is the right rubber and, if so, which type of butyl is required. For example, rubber stoppers made from bromobutyl have lower drug turbidity. This company specializes in the design and custom fabrication of specialty seals and gaskets, thermal and acoustic insulation, vibration dampening products and materials, EMI shielding and other high-quality rubber and plastic parts for a variety of industries.

Injection molding of silicone has been added to this company's rapid prototype services lineup. The firm is able to turn part designs into injection molded parts in a matter of days. The company also offers a web page to convey how to create one's own silicone part designs with manufacturability in mind.

Engineers are provided with the capability to measure an elastomer's fatigue endurance limit, thanks to a newly developed service that is being implemented at Axel Products. This endurance limit marks the point below which cyclic loads may be endured indefinitely without incurring damage. Developers need to know this limit in order to maximize durability and avoid failure. Although the endurance limit has been studied for decades by researchers interested in fatigue performance, measuring it has previously required either exceptionally long testing periods (months via a direct method of observation), or the use of inconvenient and potentially unsafe solvents (via an indirect method that involves swelling the elastomer and possibly changing the properties of interest). The new test is motivated by the principle that the endurance limit is set by the intrinsic strength of an elastomer's individual polymer network chains.
www.endurica.com

This winter test center hosts hundreds of automotive industry engineers, experts and test drivers each winter in Brimley, MI. Snow and ice cover miles of groomed track in various formations for skilled drivers to test vehicles and vehicle systems in the ultimate winter conditions. Testing areas can be exclusive to a customer or shared among multiple companies, and are created specifically based on a customer's needs. More than 30 test areas are groomed and maintained for clients, including several handling courses of varying lengths, with curves and straightaways.

Customer service is said to be this firm's most important aim. In addition to classical service, the company offers customer training, and calibration and maintenance services, if required. With its worldwide service support, customers can choose from a variety of possibilities, no matter in which part of the world the devices are operating. For customers requiring monitoring of measurement equipment to ISO 9001 and other norms, the company offers a calibration service. This calibration service allows the accuracy verification of the measuring device and provides its corresponding certification or documentation. Usually, the calibration of a customer's device is required once per year. This can be realized by use of the firm's own supplied certified calibration standards, or if they do not wish to buy and maintain the calibration equipment themselves, the firm can offer an on-site or return to base service realized from any of the company's branches around the world.

This firm is said to help customers achieve their goals by offering comprehensive conveyance solutions that create significant economic value. They claim to Deliver innovative, premium technology within a direct business model and a global, industry-specific structure. Industry-specific teams have an in-depth knowledge of customer applications, and provide technical support and consulting, and 24/7 customer service. The firm provides solutions and solves problems for its customers. The company is said to have revolutionized conveyance systems with the invention of modular plastic belting, and continues to develop for the future. The company has over 700 patents worldwide, as well as new products, equipment, solutions and services.

A seal production site in Belgium features custom design and manufacture of sealing and polymer solutions. Omniseal spring-energized seals are said to be a popular choice in the oil and gas industry due to their proven extreme reliability and durability, and ability to work in offshore, onshore and subsea environments, according to the company.

Housing a large inventory of niche and common application plastics, this company provides a full line of cut-to-size sheets, rods and tubes. The plastics inventory includes materials such as UHMW, acrylic (Plexiglass), HDPE, Kydex, polycarbonate, ABS, acetal and more. A large inventory of high performance application plastics, including Torlon, Turcite, Nyloil, Nylatron, Vespel, Delrin and Delrin AF, PTFE Teflon and many other specialty grades of plastics is offered. Customers can find plastics from leading manufacturers for boating and marine industries. In addition to a large range of plastics, specialty tools and accessories are available, as well as fabrication services using specialty equipment designed for plastic polishing, gluing, sawing and routing.

A simulation solution is available that customers can use in their own CAE environment to design the mechanics of components made from high-performance Tepex continuous fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composites. Customers are provided with a high-quality material model for designing Tepex structures, which as a plug-in can easily be integrated in their own software environment. The standard used to develop the plug-in was HiAnt software that is already said to have proven its reliability and accuracy in numerous projects. Apart from this complete modeling service, many customers also want to be able to reliably design Tepex components themselves in their own CAE environment. A solution, therefore, was developed that permits the mechanical material behavior of Tepex to be modeled in a Digimat simulation. This solution now is available as a plug-in for common CAE codes. It gives users the advantage of being able to access the same, efficient material description, independent of the solver and the type of analysis.

This webinar describes new techniques in robotic material handling. New robotic end effectors and their innovative use in handling diverse products will be covered. The use of multiple axes, dual arms and cooperative mechanisms will be covered. These innovations reduce tooling costs and enhance the flexibility that end users need, according to the company. The webinar will also show example application videos. The webinar will show new techniques in robotic material handling, new robotic end effectors and their use in handling diverse products, use of multiple axes, dual arms and cooperative mechanisms and perspectives from a panel of industry experts.

The Mobile Training and Education Center is a 38-foot Winnebago that contains equipment and resources to facilitate hands-on learning. The set-up is currently tailored to light industry applications and includes magnetic separators, vibratory conveyors and screeners and metal detectors, as well as a high-tech multimedia system with mobile broadband and multiple monitors, including a 42″ touch screen SmartBoard. The Mobile Training and Education Center schedule is based on customer demand and all visits are free of charge. Customers can check the 2014 website calendar for current available openings.

A free 60 minute webinar provides an overview of various topics related to both material and whole product testing techniques that assist product development engineers in their daily search for high performance materials.

Injection molding machines and manufacturing cells continually need to boost their output, efficiency and flexibility. This may result in changing requirements for the machine manufacturer's service organization. This company claims to have squared up to this challenge by reorganizing its service products and services under their plus banner. The objective is to create added value for their customers. Training and service are the firm's features. The service portfolio is more transparent, thus opening up optimization potential for existing machines, robots and plants, according to the company. The new offerings range from global on-site support with spare parts logistics, remote services and a 24 hour, seven days a week hotline, maintenance and repair contracts at fixed prices to retrofitting options and optimization tools, application engineering consultancy and professional training and eLearning offerings.

Fireproof rubber products for vehicles and transportation are available. Sealing specialists help with material selection, and can design and custom-fabricate door and window seals, acoustic and thermal insulation, and many other fireproof rubber parts that meet standards and specifications for flammability, toxicity, burn rate and fire safety.

The firm's Polymer Library will now be updated on a weekly basis, giving subscribers access to the latest information more quickly. The Polymer Bulletin service from the Polymer Library has also increased its frequency to weekly, to ensure its subscribers have timely access to their content.
The Polymer Library team of dedicated information professionals inspect more than 1,000 journals and conferences, gathering details of the latest developments on the science, technology and business of polymers. The team collates this information into an update and adds it to the Polymer Library, now once every week. The shift from 26 updates to 51 updates per year represents a near doubling of the frequency of updates, offering the latest information more often and in more manageable portions.
The latest information builds on over 40 years of content; the Polymer Library has well over a million records to search through, offering the most comprehensive abstracts database dedicated to plastics, rubber, polymeric composites and adhesives. The database is also supported by a fast, efficient document delivery service, so the full text of virtually any item listed on the Polymer Library can be ordered direct from the team and delivered to your inbox within 24 hours.

This industrial air cleaning specialist announced the launch of its new website. Designed with a fresh new look and user-friendly navigation, the interactive website enables visitors to find the best industrial air cleaning and air filtration solution to meet their specific application needs. Designing a website that provides visitors and customers with an intuitive easy-to-use interface that enables them to find information quickly to make better decisions was said to be an exciting challenge. Customers steered the development of the new site as they wanted to learn more about the specific air cleaning challenges they are facing and how the firm has solved similar problems for other customers. Content is focused on the firm's guiding value to be a customer-driven, market-focused company, and the new website achieves this by providing the most accurate product knowledge, industry application insight and resource information to allow website visitors to find immediate solutions for their industrial air pollution control challenges. The Explore UAS Filtration Solutions section advises visitors and customers regarding specific process or industry application based challenges in their facilities and how we have helped other customers solve similar problems. Current industry and regulatory information is provided to keep customers up-to-date with the industry’s rapidly changing air quality requirements. An enhanced products section features detailed information on our broad range of industrial dust collection and mist collection products. An interactive floor plan helps site visitors select the right type of system for their needs. An extensive resource center contains white papers, technical articles, featured case studies, industry application spotlights, product brochures and additional resource links. Technical support resources are provided for registering products, accessing owner’s manuals and warranty information, and submitting support requests. An improved replacement filter cross-reference provides customers with the benefit of using ProTura nanofiber media technology to improve the performance of their system.